Ben Freeman, Ph. D.

Investigator

Year Started At POGO:2011

Areas of Expertise: Military contracting, foreign lobbying, Star Creep (i.e. rank inflation in the military), military procurement, military whistleblowers.

Freeman specializes in Department of Defense personnel issues, weapons procurement, and the impact of lobbying by foreign governments on U.S. Foreign policy. Additionally, he has utilized his expertise testifying before the Senate and as an instructor in the School of Security and Global Studies at American Military University, where he teaches research methods and analytics.

Prior to joining POGO, Freeman earned a Ph.D. in political science from Texas A&M University, where he was also an instructor in the Political Science Department and the Bush School of Government and Public Service. He recently completed a book on lobbying by foreign governments in the U.S. titled The Foreign Policy Auction, which is scheduled for release this spring. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, on National Public Radio, and in numerous other media outlets.

POGO highlights:

Testified before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel on Star Creep – the rising proportion of Generals and Admirals in the U.S. military.

Spearheaded POGOs Propaganda Project Database, which this Spring will release more than 1,000 previously unpublished communications from lobbyists working on behalf of foreign governments.

Project Manager of the POGO/Taxpayers for Common Sense report “Spending Less, Spending Smarter: Recommendations for National Security Savings FY 2012 to FY 2021”

The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires lobbyists working on behalf of foreign interests to disclose details about their relationships with their foreign clients, but POGO found that the law is not always obeyed and the Justice Department does not always enforce it.

POGO's National Security Investigator Ben Freeman spoke at the CATO Institute on May 21 at the Future of the U.S. Navy SUrface Fleet event. Ben highlighted the problems with the Navy's newest ship, the Littoral Combat Ship, which POGO has been investigating for problems of cracking, corrosion and engine failures.

Americans are tightening their belts, and it’s time for the U.S. government to do the same. In light of the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the subsequent failure of the “Super Committee,” Congress is still desperately seeking ways to reduce spending. To this end, the Project On Government Oversight and Taxpayers for Common Sense have closely examined the proposed national security budget. We found nearly $700 billion in savings over the next ten years, including cuts to wasteful weapons systems as well as limits on out-of-control contract spending.

POGO has obtained a number of Navy documents showing that Lockheed Martin’s USS Freedom (LCS-1, the first LCS ship) has been afflicted by flawed designs and failed equipment since being commissioned, has at least 17 known cracks, and has repeatedly been beset by engine-related failures.

The ratio of generals and admirals to enlisted soldiers in the U.S. military is higher than ever before. As more generals and admirals are added with less troops under them, the taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for more private jets and entourages while the military is slowed down by the added layers of bureaucracy.
Read more about the top heavy military and the problem of star creep on the POGO blog.

The increasing proportion of officers relative to enlisted personnel, as well as the tendency for higher ranking officers to do work that could be done by lower ranking officers, is known as brass creep or as officer or rank inflation. The pace of brass creep has accelerated in the 20 years since the Cold War ended, culminating in today’s unprecedented top-heavy force structure.

Rep. Mike Coffman sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee asking them to replace sequestration with "responsible reductions to the defense budget."

It’s getting easier to find people inside Washington’s Beltway who want to cut the fat from the Pentagon budget. Scaling back military spending isn’t just for the most progressive members of Congress anymore.

In addition to extramarital affairs and “flirtatious e-mails,” the General Petraeus sex scandal highlighted another of the Pentagon’s dirty little secrets – generals live like billionaires, and taxpayers are footing the bill.

All but one of 25 House members on a panel investigating problems with the F-22 fighter jet received contributions from employees or political action committees associated with Lockheed Martin, the company that made the aircraft.

A POGO analysis of executive compensation at the top five Pentagon contractors found that the average compensation package of a CEO at one of these firms was approximately $21.5 million last year, hundreds of times what the average U.S. worker, soldier or defense industry employee makes.

In late 2010, the future of one of the U.S. Navy’s prized new weapons systems hung in the balance.
Instead of choosing between competing versions of a warship designed to operate in shallow coastal waters, the Navy wanted Congress’s blessing to buy both of them – one by Lockheed Martin and another by General Dynamics.

Defense contractors, in their relentless campaign to avoid reductions in Pentagon spending and, consequently, the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars they receive every year, have started taking hostages—their own employees.

An amendment requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a review of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program passed during the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) yesterday.

Overseas contingency operations (OCO) funds, which have been used to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, should only be used to fund emergency military operations, according to a recent letter from six Republican Representatives to the House Appropriations Committee.

An investigation by POGO has found that one of Newt Gingrich's advisers, Robert McFarlane, covertly lobbied for interests in southern Sudan and reportedly on behalf of the Sudanese government—without properly disclosing his activities to the U.S. government.

The cost of our nation's top-heavy military--which now features a historically large proportion of generals and admirals, a trend called Star Creep--doesn't end when these top officers retire. Indeed, top generals and admirals can make even more in retirement than they do on active duty, as USA Today’s Tom Vanden Brook revealed last week.

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Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that champions good government reforms. POGO’s investigations into corruption, misconduct, and conflicts of interest achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.